The Hand of Iron
by Firestorm Nauralagos
Summary: Revenge can turn even the best of hearts. A bitter witch doctor will stop at nothing to destroy the only person stronger than her. If she can unlock the secrets of the Hand of Iron, there is no force in the Spiral that will stop her ... On hiatus.


_**A/N: **__Since I am unfamiliar with the actual plot of Pirate101, I'm making stuff up as I go, so bear with me please! _

_**Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own Pirate101. My pirate rubber ducky, however … he's mine. My own. My preciousssssssssssssssssss! ;)**_

The young girl leaned up against the mast of her small dinghy, her arms crossed and her eyes closed as she patiently waited.

"Hey, Rory! Are you gonna stand there all day, or are you gonna go swimming with me and Daniel?" Her eyes opened, quickly searching out the source of the call. A small smile appeared at her lips as the girl spotted her best friend, Charlotte Ashburn.

"Hello, Lottie. I'm waiting for news from the Captain, you know that. He said specifically that all captaincy candidates-"

"-Are to wait at their dinghies for further instructions. I _know_," Charlotte complained."You work too hard, Rory. Or, should I say, _Captain Aurora Xiriga._" She grinned. "You'll get the spot. None of the other candidates are as good as you."

"There's still Lenore. She's been better than me at navigation since we were little kids," Aurora reasoned.

"Yeah, well she sucks at hoodoo, and she's a witch doctor! _I'm _better than she is, and my study habits are less than exemplary. All she can do is heal and navigate." The witch doctor chuckled as she twirled her staff.

"Sebastian Finch has a chance, too; he did better than any other candidate when we had the sparring contest." Aurora nervously played with a lock of her long, dark red hair. "I think he might actually beat me."

"_Sebastian_ _Finch_?" Charlotte snorted. "He's a recluse. Besides, everyone knows that the Captain likes you better. Now come on, he didn't say anything about swimming near your dinghy. The pond is right over there; I'll go get Daniel." As the witch doctor headed off, Aurora could only shake her head and smile. There was no reasoning with Charlotte Ashburn.

-V-

The boy stared into the water in fascination. He was watching the slow progress of a little blue crab, which was meandering slowly towards the deeper parts of the pond. He rested his spear on the ground and leaned closer to get a better look. He felt a pair of hands on his shoulders, and suddenly he had a much closer look than he had anticipated.

"Hey!" He sputtered, climbing out of the water. He could hear Charlotte's loud laughter.

"Gotcha!" She was laughing so hard that she almost toppled over.

"That's not fair, Lottie! I was looking at the crab!" The boy knew that his protests fell on deaf ears; Charlotte was too busy laughing to hear him.

"Oh, Danny, you should have seen your FACE! It was _hysterical_!" Daniel frowned, pulling off his green and gray striped cap to wring the water from it.

"Now my hat's all wet," he complained.

"You and that hat … you're in love with it, I swear," Charlotte chuckled.

"It's a good hat!" He protested, shoving it back onto his head.

"Come on, let's go get your sister! She won't move from that stupid dinghy; she can't leave until she gets word from Captain Avery."

"Maybe we should let her stay there. We can swim some other time," Daniel started uncertainly, but Charlotte had already grabbed his arm and was dragging him towards the dock.

-V-

The blond-haired girl drew a sharp breath as she ducked behind a barrel, peering around the side at the masked man. He was speaking in a low voice to a group of clockworks, which stared at him blankly through the holes in their white armada masks. The leader nodded in finality and turned to leave. His long black robes swished as he walked towards the girl's hiding place. The girl held her breath as the Deacon strode past, and she took note of the several weapons he carried.

_I thought he said that this was a regular old Armada ship! _The girl thought, remembering the dare. The other thief had dared her to steal a gold coin off the ship, and the girl had thought it would be easy. She'd pulled off far bigger heists in her lifetime; a single gold coin didn't seem like such a big deal. Ryan had failed to mention that the ship she would be robbing belonged to the Deacon himself. Stealing from the Deacon was suicide.

"You can do this, Monica," she muttered to herself. The treasury was just below the Deacon's cabin, but if anyone could get there, it was her. She was The Spider. Monica steeled herself, shouldered her musket and slipped out from behind the barrel. The clockworks were patrolling the deck now; her timing would have to be impeccable to avoid a conflict with them. She watched carefully from the shadows, taking careful note of how the clockworks moved. They followed the exact same pattern, walking jerkily in a figure eight around the deck. There was one break in the flow, Monica noticed; there was a few seconds where all six clockworks were facing the other side of the ship, and if she was fast, she could get behind a stack of boxes that were right beside the stairs. She sprinted silently across the deck, just barely making it to the boxes before one of the clockworks turned. "Easy as pie," she whispered. Monica softly climbed down the stairs.

She had to pass a row of prison cells to reach the treasury at the back of the ship. Thankfully, there was only one other prisoner, a crane who was fast asleep in the back of his cell. Monica tiptoed past the crane and quickly made her way to the treasury door, slipped a hairpin into the lock, and jiggled it slightly. There was a soft click, and she grinned as the door slid open smoothly. Monica slipped inside the room.

There were heaps of treasure within the room- statues that were taller than she was, stacks of silver and gold bowls, dozens of precious gemstones, and thousands of gold coins. Monica grinned, selecting the closest gold coin and flipping it in the air. She quickly tucked it into her pocket, snuck back out of the treasury, and locked the door with her hairpin. The girl strode towards the stairs happily, whistling under her breath. She crashed head-on into the Deacon.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't The Spider. I've been searching for you for weeks." Monica froze. "Monica Devereaux, you are hereby under arrest for piracy, stealing, and other heinous acts worthy of punishment. I suggest you set down your musket and surrender." She narrowed her eyes.

"No member of the Skull Island Thieves Guild surrenders without a fight." She flipped the musket around and fired three times at the Deacon- but he was gone. She felt something hard slam into her head from behind, and the world went black.


End file.
